Cultural life

Most of Puerto Rico’s cultural institutions, including its major universities and libraries, are concentrated in the San Juan area. The Puerto Rican Athenium (Ateneo Puertorriqueño; 1876) is a prestigious learned society. The University of Puerto Rico Library System (1903) is the island’s main library, with more than four million holdings divided among 12 sites. Works by Puerto Rican painters and sculptors are displayed in the Museum of Contemporary Art (1984) and the Puerto Rican Museum of Art (2000), which are in San Juan. Also notable are the Ponce Art Museum (1959) and the Museum of Religious Art, the latter housed in a 17th-century church in San Germán. The Luis A. Ferré Fine Arts Centre (1981) in San Juan is the venue for many theatrical and musical events. Among the island’s research centres are the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture (1955) and the International Institute of Tropical Forestry (1939). The Arecibo Observatory (1963–2020), a radio telescope with a 1,000-foot (305-metre) diameter, was, for most of its life, the largest of its kind in the world. It collapsed in 2020.

Visual arts

Some of the island’s earliest inhabitants created polychrome ceramics, amulets, and stone carvings. About 1000 ce the Taino used granite, marble, and other types of stone to carve three-pointed figures with human and animal features; they also produced ceremonial stools, wooden rattles, petroglyphs surrounding their ball courts, and stone-carved ceremonial belts or collars. During Puerto Rico’s colonial period, African slaves formed multicoloured coconut-fiber masks for local festivals, a tradition that is still carried on. José de Rivafrecha y Campeche (1751–1809) was the island’s first major painter. The most notable 19th-century painters were Ramón Atiles y Pérez and Francisco Oller. More recent artists include Julio Rosado del Valle, Rafael Tufiño, Antonio Martorell, and Augusto Marín.

Literature

Contemporary poets, novelists, short-story writers, and essayists keep alive the traditions of such 19th-century forerunners as novelist Manuel Zeno Gandía, playwright Alejandro Tapia, essayist Eugenio María de Hostos, and poet José Gautier Benítez. Leading 20th-century and contemporary authors include novelists and short-story writers Abelardo Díaz Alfaro, Enrique Laguerre, Pedro Juan Soto, Emilio Díaz Valcárcel, José Luis González, and Rosario Ferré; poets Julia de Burgos and Luis Palés Matos (whose works reflect Afro-Caribbean influences); playwright René Marqués; and poet and playwright Pedro Pietri, who inspired young Puerto Ricans living in New York City, called Nuyoricans, by composing poetry that instilled pride in their culture and heritage.

Performing arts

Puerto Rican musicians, composers, and actors have made marks far beyond their island’s shores, and some have been counted among the world’s most famous pop-culture figures. Notable Puerto Rican stage and screen performers included the Academy Award winners José Ferrer, Rita Moreno, and Benicio Del Toro, as well as Raúl Juliá. Other performers of Puerto Rican descent included Chita Rivera and Jennifer Lopez.

Among 19th-century composers are Manuel Tavárez and Juan Morel Campos, both known for their dance melodies. The popular 20th-century songwriter Rafael Hernández is still revered throughout Latin America. The Spanish-born cellist Pablo Casals, whose mother was Puerto Rican, moved to the island in 1956 and founded the world-famous classical music festival there that bears his name. Puerto Rican musicians have included the classical pianist Jesus María Sanromá, opera singers Antonio Paoli and Justino Díaz, and popular musicians Ruth Fernández, Tito Puente, José Feliciano, Cheo Feliciano, Ricky Martin, Calle 13, and Bad Bunny.

Latin jazz and salsa are enjoyed throughout the island; also popular are merengue, rock, rap, the Afro-Caribbean bomba, and the tambourine-marked plena. Many musical groups preserve jíbaro (folk) music by playing such instruments as the cuatro (a small guitar carved from a single piece of wood), the marímbula (a wooden box on which are mounted tuned metal tongues), the güiro (a percussive gourd that is also a popular decoration), drums, and maracas.

Sports and recreation

Baseball is Puerto Rico’s national sport, and the island has long been a source for U.S. major-league players, including Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda, Juan (“Igor”) González, Bernie Williams, Roberto Hernández, Iván Rodríguez, and Leo Gómez. Boxing and basketball are also popular. Puerto Rican boxers of note include José Torres, Edwin Rosario, Hector Camacho, and Félix (“Tito”) Trinidad. Cockfighting and Thoroughbred horse racing events (where gambling is permitted) are also well attended. Puerto Rico has competed in the Olympic Games since 1948, and its boxers are frequent contenders for medals.

Puerto Rico observes many of the secular holidays of the United States, and, as elsewhere in Latin America, its municipalities celebrate numerous religious festivals centered on the feast days of patron saints. The Festival of St. John the Baptist (June 24) in San Juan climaxes at midnight when revelers walk backward into the sea, an act said to bring good luck. Ponce hosts a pre-Lenten Carnival featuring horn-masked celebrants who dance and take part in parades, and the town of Hatillo holds the Carnival-like Festival of the Masks each December 28.

Press and broadcasting

The commonwealth has a free press, and local and major U.S. newspapers are widely available, as are foreign publications. Puerto Rico has several weekly and daily periodicals, the largest of which are El Nuevo Día, El Vocero de Puerto Rico, and the San Juan Star (which has both English- and Spanish-language editions). The first radio broadcast in Puerto Rico was made in 1923, and the island now has some 120 AM and FM radio stations—giving it one of the world’s highest densities of radio broadcasters. Nearly all broadcasts are in Spanish. Television was introduced in 1954, and there are now a dozen Spanish-language TV stations, with programming comparable to that shown in the United States. Puerto Rico also has government radio and television stations, which feature educational and cultural broadcasts. English-language channels and other programming are available via cable television and satellite.